Detention of man, 34, by police on the M42 on Sunday evening followed three arrests earlier that day
Four men have been arrested in the space of 24 hours by officers investigating the murder of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, Merseyside police have said.
The latest arrest was made after police stopped a 34-year-old man who was driving on the M42 near Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, on Sunday evening. He was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.
Earlier on Sunday police made three other arrests. Two men were arrested in the early hours in the Runcorn area, including a 34-year-old man from Liverpool suspected of murder and attempted murder.
The other man, a 41-year-old from Knowsley, is suspected of assisting an offender, as is a 29-year-old who was arrested in Liverpool on Sunday afternoon.
Olivia was shot dead by a gunman who had forced his way into her family home in the Dovecot area of Liverpool on the evening of 22 August.
The assailant was chasing a convicted burglar, Joseph Nee, who had burst into the house when Olivia’s mother Cheryl opened her front door to see what the commotion outside was.
Cheryl was shot in the wrist. Nee was shot in the leg and torso. Neither of the men who entered the house had any links to the family.
At a press briefing on Monday, the Merseyside police assistant chief constable Chris Green said the response from the public in providing information had been phenomenal.
“We have had fantastic support from the community, whether that is people coming forward and providing us with witness evidence, people uploading dashcam footage or CCTV from their house or other information … It has been really, really positive.
“The appeal still stands. This is a detailed, complex investigation. Those who were responsible are not coming forward and saying, ‘Right, I was responsible … here you go.’ We need to go and uncover all of the evidence.”
Green said officers would do everything humanly possible to gather every single piece of evidence, no matter how tiny.
He would not be drawn on whether it was information from the public that had led to arrests in the Olivia case. But he said: “Often it is two, three, four, five different bits of information that will come in that will lead to action or a particular arrest. But it is fair to say that we have had really good support from the community, as I would expect.
“Everyone is completely outraged about what has happened in Merseyside over the last two weeks. The support we have had has been excellent and that has certainly assisted and allowed us to make investigative decisions and take action.”
Olivia’s murder and two other fatal shootings over recent weeks have shone an unwelcome spotlight on Liverpool and gun crime. Merseyside police said tangible progress was being made, with the biggest drop in firearm discharges in the region in 20 years.
DCS Lee Turner, the head of the force’s intelligence bureau, said: “It is so tragic that events like this then put the spotlight on Merseyside. Until the horrific events of two weeks ago, we were having a really positive, significant impact on the level of criminality using firearms – they were going away from that and using other tactics.”
He said it was not easier to get a gun on Merseyside than in other areas. “It is difficult to get a firearm wherever you are in the UK because of the strict laws that we have regarding their use. If you’re convicted of carrying, you’re going to get five years.”
He said the force monitored 119 organised crime groups in Merseyside, not all of which were active.
